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MORE GLIB LIES FROM PORT AUTHORITY - SO VOTE NO ON ISSUE 14

The Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority continues to obfuscate and intentionally misrepresent the facts in its attempt to finance itself from our county taxes.

The Port “club’s” campaign literature ( ostensibly mailed by “Citizens for the Port of Cleveland”, Reverend Sterling Glover, Treasurer, 26100 Lake Shore Blvd, 44132) contends “It’s not a Tax Increase” (i.e. voting affirmatively on issue 14) is at best a grossly misleading statement, and in my view an outright lie – because the tax levy which the Port hopes the voters will pass constitutes a NEW TAX to replace a tax levy which is set to expire. So it is a new tax, and thus a tax increase over what we would have without Issue 14.

And the only “jobs” any new tax would support will be the too well paid “jobs” held by the authority and its employees. The issue's own web site acknowledges that the present tax which is due to expire “Raises about $3.2 million annually to fund vital Port Authority operations”. “Vital” to whom? Is the question… Go down and view the “Port” for yourself – it is obsolete and dead 99% of the time.

Remember, Port Authority Chairman Carney led the Authority a year ago to pass a vote to exercise eminent domain for developer Wolstein in the Flats. That eminent domain was challenged in Court and, without even hearing the case, the Court indicated clearly that Wolstein would not prevail, causing Wolstein to buy property from various private owners at multiples of the value that the Port had originally offered in their heavy handed eminent domain extortion.

The Authority is obsolete, has abandoned it’s primary job, grossly inflates it’s economic impact on North East Ohio, and remains AWOL.

Do you think Reverend Glover hired New Media Campaigns to do the “Port” Authority’s bidding? Who bought the URL? Where did the money come from to mail out a flier to all registered voters under Cleveland, Ohio postal bulk rate permit No. 360? Did the Port Authority itself fund any of this political campaign? Or is it “I’ll scratch your back you scratch mine” between the Port Authority and Greater Cleveland Partnership?

I agree, it is a new tax and that claim is misleading... but what about the port and NEO politics and mind-control media aren't misleading, if not criminal.

I am interested to see the port plans for Global Warming, as I believe that will very quickly lead to dramatic environmental issues (more than already, which are considerable) including further drops in lake water levels that will make many waterways including the Cuyahoga inappropriate for heavy industrial use, like steel production. Further, as clean fresh air and water have a higher value to society than anything about Mittal, for example, and people increasingly migrate toward fresh clean air and water, society will not tolerate the destruction of our air and waterways by self-interested industrial leadership like we have had in NEO for the past failed century.

The current port authority leadership is obsolete - they are not asking the right questions and are not demonstrating proper social values. In addition to Mittal, consider all the trucks hauling low value port-spewed bulk like gravel up from the most valuable place in NEO - the Cuyahoga River and lakefront - ripping up our weak infrastructure, lowering quality of life for all in their wake - and polluting the entire region, to enable sprawl. Now they want to add more container traffic, to give a reason to add more freeways. The current port leadership is foolish and the new $250,000 a year director is no better, unless he is addressing all this and other matters related to relocating the port far, far away.

What should our port of the future be? Far, far from downtown Cleveland, and out of the hands of politicians and real estate developers. Why the hell aren't we speaking about the real issues? Because the port is part of an industrial power structure so dangerous and entrenched nobody will touch them, if they could. Until we see who steps up or is "Made" for the upcoming County Commissioner and Cleveland Mayor and council openings, we won't have a chance of fixing any of this.

I say vote for the port funding and vote for the right people to replace current leadership and spend the money right - make the port of the future and positions on pollution and the port authority primary campaign issues in all elections going forward - because there will always be great power in the port authority and the issue is that it is in the wrong hands - that is what must change. Let's change the discussion from if the post is worth $3.2 million a year, which it is, to whether those who have been entrusted with the last $10 million of our money have been exceptional, responsible and accountable, which they haven't. I see no indication the situation is getting better with the new director, so it is time to increase public pressure for change and drive the agenda for them, in the public eye... just like with the Breuer.

So, we need to design the port of the future - where and what is it? Who should lead it and how?

The current NEO-industrial leadership has defined the level of public subsidy, foundation support, bond money, port legal action, media attention and political capital available to developers like Wolstein, Stark and Carney... I believe the Wolstein East Bank Flats package is now worth over $100 million and they are probably going to give him free geothermal. Buyers all get tax breaks - historic credits are ,misused - development grants and low interest loans galore - it is charity for the rich at the highest level. Well, all that should be available at the same level for the Williams and redevelopment of East Cleveland, so we now know at least what to expect from all parties... the manual has been written by the best.

Time to start working on the ask for the Williams - power structure, you are on notice... the Williams attorney George Forbes and I will be calling, and this is a civil rights issue..

If we vote down the port renewal, and cut back on the taxes that go to the Port Authority, we are acting responsibly.

We can no longer afford, as a community, to be naive about the hijacking that's been happening in NEO over the past 40 years. You can't allow the money to continue to flow and expect to get a different result.

The way to disrupt it is to begin to take away the resources, and to reallocate them. Reallocating them back to ourselves is a start.